Is Longlegs In UK Cinemas?

Are you a fan of horror films, or do you avoid them at all costs? Whether you prefer to hide behind your hands or the sofa, Longlegs should be on your watch list. Starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, it’s got everyone talking. Here’s what to expect before you tune in.

Longlegs: Plot, Cast, Criticism

What Is Longlegs About?

Set in 1990s Oregon, Longlegs follows Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), an FBI agent who has suspected clairvoyant capabilities after displaying inexplicable intuition during a case. As a result, Lee is assigned to a decades-spanning case: a series of brutal murder-suicides involving families throughout Oregon. In each case, a father murders his wife and children before taking his own life; at each crime scene, a note signed ‘Longlegs’ is discovered, featuring cryptic, satanic coding. The handwriting in the letters does not belong to any of the victims, but there is no evidence of a home invasion or the presence of anyone else in any case.

When Lee comes aboard the case, it takes an unexpected turn, revealing evidence of the occult and an unsettling connection between Lee and the killer. Decoding his pattern, Lee must stop Longlegs before he strikes again.

Who Stars?

• Maika Monroe as Lee Harker, an FBI agent assigned to Longlegs’ case
• Lauren Acala as young Lee
• Nicolas Cage as Longlegs, a serial killer being hunted by the FBI
• Blair Underwood as Agent Carter, Lee’s superior in the FBI
• Alicia Witt as Ruth Harker, Lee’s mother
• Michelle Choi-Lee as Agent Browning
• Dakota Daulby as Agent Horatio Fisk
• Kiernan Shipka as Carrie Anne Camera, Longlegs’ only known survivor
• Maila Hosie as young Carrie Anne
• Jason Day as Carrie Anne’s father
• Lisa Chandler as Carrie Anne’s mother
• Ava Kelders as Ruby Carter
• Rryla McIntosh as adult Ruby
• Carmel Amit as Anna Carter
• Peter James Bryant as a senior FBI agent

What Are The Critics Saying?

Longlegs is gathering acclaim across the board, with an incredible opening week. Against a budget of under $10 million, Longlegs smashed projections and earned $10 million in its first day in cinemas, with an opening weekend total of $22.6 million, second only to Despicable Me 4 in the US. It’s the best opening ever for an independent horror film, and its box office total so far is the best of any original horror film in 2024. Longlegs has an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 78/100 on Metacritic.

In the UK, Wendy Ide for The Guardian gave Longlegs four out of five stars, calling its titular antagonist ‘a potentially iconic horror villain’, noting director Osgood Perkins visuals and Maika Monroe’s performance as the flick’s most valuable assets. Ide writes Monroe is ‘among the few actors who can match Mia Goth in the ranks of this generation’s finest genre performers’.

Meanwhile, Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey in another four-star review writes, ‘Longlegs isn’t some unshakeable artefact of malevolence, and more like a knife in the back – nasty, precise, and unexpected,’ praising the film’s subtle unsettling nature, ‘[suggesting] its greatest scares, rather than [revealing] them’. Writing for Empire, Sophie Butcher similarly calls Longlegs ‘a chilling concoction, featuring a remarkable transformation of Nicolas Cage and a reminder of Maika Monroe’s star quality. Submit to its demonic darkness for a singular, sensory cinematic horror experience.’

Across the board, there is particular praise for the movie’s opening minutes, which Butcher declares ‘are some of the most effective in recent memory’, adding: ‘Perkins delivers a series of jump-scares that get your heart pounding out of your chest. Trust us, you’ll feel it. It’s a hell of an opening’.

Is Longlegs Out In The UK?

Yes, Longlegs landed in UK cinemas on 12 July 2024.

Where Is It Streaming?

If you’d prefer to hide behind your sofa, bad news: Longlegs is not available for at-home streaming just yet as it’s still in cinemas, but we anticipate the movie will eventually be available to stream on Prime Video in the UK, and on Hulu in the US.